'Genomic zoo' plan unveiledAN INTERNATIONAL team of scientists has embarked on one of the most ambitious research projects yet attempted in evolutionary biology. They plan to map the genomes of 10,000 vertebrate animals including fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals, and in the process create a “genomic zoo”, writes DICK AHLSTROM
Secrets of ancient fossils revealed by Irish scientistAN IRISH SCIENTIST has successfully recovered preserved muscle tissue from an 18 million-year-old fossilised salamander. The work raises the possibility of finding soft tissue on any fossilised bones, even dinosaurs, writes DICK AHLSTROM
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Boyle Medal winner's lectureTHE WINNER of the 2009 RDS Irish Times Boyle Medal for Scientific Excellence does not beat around the bush. He firmly believes that science can save the world.
On the RadarThe pick of the science news
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- When is a theory not a theory?
THE TERM “conspiracy theory” commonly means a fringe theory that explains an event as the secret machinations of powerful Machiavellian conspirators. The modern popularity of such theories dates from the conspiracy theory that arose in the 1960s around the assassination of JFK. Mainstream opinion looks on conspiracy theories with a jaundiced eye and often ridicules them. Of course genuine conspiracies do exist, for example Abraham Lincoln died as a result of a conspiracy. And George Bernard Shaw said, “All professions are conspiracies against the laity”.
- Charting progress in our understanding of life
PERHAPS THE greatest remaining mystery in science is the mechanism whereby life spontaneously arose on earth about 3.7 billion years ago.
Features »
Spotted woodpecker is great, tho' splashed and smallANOTHER LIFE: THE DAY THE clocks go back is when we hang up the bird-feeders again. Looking around, the garden certainly hasn’t much else to offer: cotoneaster, firethorn, hawthorn, guelder rose all stripped when we weren’t looking, and just a prickly rambler rose still starred with golden hips.
- Test shows Shroud of Turin a relic of the Middle Ages
THE TURIN shroud is a linen cloth (4.42m x 1.13m) bearing an image of a man many believe is the crucified Jesus Christ. The cloth has been investigated scientifically, but the jury is still not completely convinced as to the age of the shroud. Obviously, if the cloth is significantly less than 2000 years old, it could not be the burial shroud of Christ. The results of the latest investigation of the shroud were announced on October 6th, claiming to have produced a replica using only materials and techniques that were available in the Middle Ages. This study will strengthen the case made by those who claim the shroud is a medieval forgery.
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